The first publication of Edna St. Vincent Millay's private, intimate
diaries, providing "a candid self-portrait of the 'bad girl of American
letters'" (Kirkus Reviews)
"Provides an occasion to revisit not just [Millay's] improbable life
but also her sometimes revelatory work."--Abigail Deutsch, Wall Street
Journal
"Rapture and Melancholy paints a picture of artistic triumph,
romantic tumult, and a daily life that descended into
addiction."--Heather Clark, New York Times Book Review
The English author Thomas Hardy proclaimed that America had two great
attractions: the skyscraper, and the poetry of Edna St. Vincent Millay.
In these diaries the great American poet illuminates not only her
literary genius, but her life as a devoted daughter, sister, wife, and
public heroine; and finally as a solitary, tragic figure.
This is the first publication of the diaries she kept from adolescence
until middle age, between 1907 and 1949, focused on her most productive
years. Who was the girl who wrote "Renascence," that marvel of early
twentieth-century poetry? What trauma or spiritual journey inspired the
poem? And after such celebrity why did she vanish into near seclusion
after 1940? These questions hover over the life and work, and trouble
biographers and readers alike. Intimate, eloquent, these confessions and
keen observations provide the key to understanding Millay's journey from
small-town obscurity to world fame, and the tragedy of her demise.
